Succumb
by oy vey
Summary: Oneshot. Six months after the death of Dumbledore, Severus Snape walks through Hogwarts for the last time.


Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Done whilst listening to t.A.Tu's 'friend or foe'.

Succumb

A man is walking through Hogwarts. He knows he shouldn't be there - if anyone catches him here he'll be in big trouble - but finds himself somehow drawn to the place.

It has been six months since he last saw the familiar dungeons. The grime still covers black walls and old iron torch brackets stand against the stonework every few feet, their flames long since extinguished.

He halts by one door and reaches out a hesitant hand, wondering...

Allowing his pallid fingers to touch the wood, he smirks slightly when the door swings open. He is now faced with a large potions classroom; the desks cleared to one side and the windows blacked.

He steps inside and inhales deeply, enjoying being back.

He had killed Dumbledore out of hatred and loyalty to the Dark Lord, he wasn't about to lie to anyone and say otherwise. All this crap in the newspapers; did Severus Snape kill Dumbledore to save the good side? Did he do it out of fear and is he now living in regret and misery somewhere? No - Severus Snape loathed the old man.

And besides, the Avada Kedavra curse wouldn't work if he had felt even the tiniest bit of remorse for what he was doing.

A noise comes from his right and the storeroom door opens. Severus Snape stepped back into the shadows by the door, watching silently.

A young woman steps out into the room. He recognises her because of her infernally ridiculous hair; short and pink. How the woman managed to become an Auror was one of the mysteries of the universe. But that isn't what Severus Snape is focusing on.

His hands are twitching.

Someone, somewhere, once said that once you killed there was no going back; you would get a thirst for the power that came with slaughter. Said someone was right.

It has been so long since he had killed... Merlin, the last person Severus has murdered in cold blood was that fool Molly Weasley, and that was _months_ ago. The Dark Lord had been very specific that he was to lie low until he was needed; not to draw any kind of attention to himself whatsoever.

Then again, he's already out, isn't he?

The woman has her hands in her jeans pockets; she's whistling tunelessly and slowly making her way for the door. Just as she takes another step, Severus Snape appears beside her.

She doesn't have a chance.

Before she can even think about reaching for her wand, Snape has thrown it across the room and grabbed her by the throat. Her struggling feeds his lust for power; her life is entirely in his hands and _God_ does it feel good to know that. Oh how many times had she laughed about him with Sirius? Well who was laughing now?

She recognises him and her eyes grow large.

He can see her brain working through her eyes; horror, anger, pity and fear in that order flash through her changing irises. Apparently having their oxygen supply cut off alters a Metamorphmagus' powers.

He squeezes and she emits a choking whimper. A scream would have been better, but then again that would bring the whole damn school down on him. The fools are getting incredibly paranoid since the attack on Beuxbatons; they even have Aurors living in the castle with them. Hence Miss Nymphadora Tonks.

She had always been an idiot, even in her days as a student. Snape had been reasonably young when he taught her and he has a short flashback of a small girl with green hair falling into his class ten minutes late and covered in bruises.

He is jerked out of his little memory by her voice; sobbing a plea for him to release her.

Snape considers dropping her.

The little part of his brain that has remained solidly sane over the past six months is telling him to walk away and let her go. She is an innocent; she never did anything to him and she doesn't deserve to die like this.

Yes she does.

Another memory slides into his overactive mind. It's Christmas and he's a boy, sitting in the tatty old living room of his childhood home. Eileen, his mother, is sat smoking by the window, watching his father kiss a pretty young woman goodnight on the doorstep.

Then he comes in and starts beating them. He hits Eileen until she falls, banging her head against the hearth with a sickening crunch, before turning on Severus. The pain stays with you forever...

But he remembers being in the Order of the Phoenix the first time. Their headquarters had been larger than Black's old house was; a huge manor somewhere in Scotland. One of the meetings... Andromeda and Ted came and Snape remembers seeing them, holding a pretty little girl, no older than three. She's laughing with her father.

He squeezes.

Nymphadora Tonks emits a slight gurgling sound and collapses. Severus casts her to one side and looks down at her broken body, watching her hair lengthen and her features twist until she takes her natural form one last time.

He takes one last look around the place he called home for over three decades before turning and sweeping out of the potions classroom. Things would never be the same again. Dumbledore was gone and the war was in full swing - Snape didn't doubt for a second that he wouldn't make it out alive.

Then again, neither would Nymphadora Tonks.

Smiling slightly, a man walks through Hogwarts. He know he shouldn't be there - if anyone catches him he'll be in big trouble - but found himself somehow drawn.

Not anymore.


End file.
